Pool of Radiance - James M. Ward [19]
"Blasphemer! My god will swallow your unholy flesh and vomit you back to the Pit where ya belong!" Anton held out his holy symbol and quickly recited prayers to Tyr for turning the undead.
Tarl clutched his own holy symbol in one hand and the Hammer of Tyr in the other, but the creature's glowing red eyes showed no fear. Even as the specters cowered back, the vampire floated closer. If it weren't for the grisly fangs revealed when he smiled, the vampire would appear almost friendly, Tarl took a step forward, no longer afraid but drawn to the handsome figure.
"No!" Anton shouted, and Tarl felt the man's huge paw clamp down firmly on his shoulder. Anton jerked Tarl back behind him and hurriedly incanted another clerical spell. "Let the flames o' Tyr strike ya dead!" he shouted at the creature, and he threw a handful of sulfur toward it.
With a whoosh, a torrential column of blue flame shot down from the sky and bathed the robed figure in white-hot fire. It screamed in agony, and its robes disintegrated as it fell to the earth in flames. Naked, the vampire was revealed as a creature of nightmares. Its translucent skin was stretched taut over its bones. Its coloring remained a ghostly white, except where the flames had blasted patches of skin from the bones, leaving black, charred holes. There was no sign whatsoever of blood.
Then the creature rose and threw back its head in a laugh that forced Tarl to imagine the unholy depths of the Abyss. It was a horrid, hollow sound that Tarl would never forget. "Deeeear brother," the vampire growled, "yoooour spell was powerful, but yoooou wished the wroooong thing. Yoooou can't strike dead what is already dead!" Once more the creature laughed.
"Run, brother!" Anton whispered. "I'll keep this abomination at bay till you can flee with the hammer!"
Tarl wanted nothing more than to flee, but he wasn't about to leave his only remaining brother in the faith. "I'm with you, Brother Anton, and so is Tyr and the power of the hammer!"
"Then, by the gods, we'll beat this bastard!" Anton swung his arm, shouted an arcane syllable, and released a blue symbol from his hand.
Thwack! The blue character, the holy symbol of Tyr, rocketed through the air and embedded itself in the forehead of the vampire.
"Aaaaghhh!" The creature dropped to its knees as the character sizzled and burned deep into its ghostly white skin. Still kneeling, the vampire lifted its head and cursed. "Noooow I trade yooooou word for word, doooog of Tyr!" The creature spit the word "Gnarlep!" at Anton. A black shape flew from its bloodless white lips and seared itself into Anton's forehead.
Tarl gasped as he saw Anton bellow in agony and clasp both hands to his forehead. The big man clawed at the black mark with all his strength, but the unholy symbol was already burning its way deep into his flesh. He let out another agonized bellow and dropped to the ground, flailing and writhing like a madman.
"Stop it!" Tarl shrieked at the vampire. "Whatever you're doing, stop! Leave him alone! What do I have to do before you'll leave him alone?"
"What dooo I want?" the vampire asked caustically. "A dooozennn hoooly mennnn enter my graveyard carrying that wretched hammer that wakes the undead and leaves noooone of my minions at peace, and you ask what I want?" The vampire fought to stand. "I want that blasphemous weapon-noooow-or yoooour friend diessss!" With a twist of his bony hand, the vampire threw Anton into even greater throes of pain.
"Stop! Leave him alone!"
"The hammer, oooor he diessss! Give me the hammer, and I'll provide yoooou and him with safe transpoooort from this place." The vampire raised his hand toward Anton and held it up threateningly.
Tarl hurled the hammer directly at the creature, but the vampire flung itself to one side, and the hammer flew by harmlessly. The creature gestured madly, and before the hammer could return to Tarl's hand, it was caught and held in red webbing that